The Finnegan Mackenzie Unique Approach to Employee Retention

Employee retention differs from employee selection, compensation, benefits…and accounting, auditing, and purchasing…in one way. There is no established, accepted process for cutting turnover whereas there are certifiable ways to do the others. Or said another way, we all take different paths to improve retention and most of them are based on our instincts rather than on research.

The old way is out. Never again should executives look to HR for solutions, and HR then consult opinion surveys and exit surveys for reasons employees leave. Next up come communication programs, recognition programs, training programs, and more staff-driven, centralized programs.

Employees don’t stay for programs. They stay for “glues”, the unique things they get from your organization that causes them to stick. The glue process starts during sourcing and selection, and then continues through training, coaching, and all the ways that your organization and your people touch each employee.

Sourcing, selection, training, coaching, and all other touchpoints spur turnover or drive retention. Each step must be refined to attract, hire, and retain the right workers for the right jobs. These are processes, and a research-based, process improvement approach is the only right step to cut turnover, whereas a program approach just creates more programs.

Research-based means the processes are based on knowledge, on reliable studies and consistent patterns of success. For example, the architect of a winning retention plan would know:

  1. What’s the first, most important thing to do to cut turnover?
  2. How does applicant age correlate with retention?
  3. Which sourcing method is the best one for hiring workers who stay?
  4.  What hiring tool will scare away bad-match applicants?
  5.  What is the right answer to “Why do you want to work for our company?”
  6. What one thing has become more important to employees than pay and benefits?
  7.  Which one skill is most important for supervisors in order to improve retention?
  8. How can Finance and Marketing contribute to retention?
  9. Which metrics should HR be held accountable for in order to drive retention?
  10. Which supervisory training has the best chance of changing supervisors’ daily behaviors?

Finnegan Mackenzie’s unique approach to employee retention is formed within the Rethinking Retention sm model which addresses unwanted turnover through a series of principles and strategies. Rethinking Retentiontm is research-based, and provides clear direction regarding “what should we do?”, “in what sequence?”, and “who should do what?”



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